Fiat Will Perform The Competition With Volkswagen Golf Sales Direction
Fiat has decided that it will launch a new conventional sedan to compete in the Volkswagen Golf, best-selling car in Europe. Instead, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne wants the Italian automaker to replace its slow-selling Bravo hatchback compact crossover pendant with a new record inspired by the hot-selling Nissan Qashqai.
Marchionne first hinted at Fiat’s plan to make the movement of goods in bold at the Detroit Motor Show in January.
Fiat finalized the decision to make the change last month, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Automotive News Europe. The car was launched in 2013, sources said.
Because of the Qashqai, Nissan has gone from being a factor that has the No. 5 vendor in the crucial segment.
The compact segment is the second largest segment in Europe with total sales of 3.16 million units last year, according to JATO Dynamics. Covenants accounted for 22 percent of Europe’s total sales of 14.3 million units last year. The subcompact segment was largest in Europe with 3.64 million sales and a 25 per cent.
The current Bravo and Qashqai launched in Europe in 2007. Its sales results were close at first, but last year the Qashqai outsold the Bravo by a margin of 5 to 1 (216091-44850), according to JATO.
Nissan launched the Qashqai, which looks like an SUV, but it was a benchmark in the Gulf, to replace the slow-selling Almera compact range.
The car has been a great success, surpassing the popular Peugeot 308 range of hatchbacks and wagons over 50,000 units last year.
By contrast, the Bravo, only offered as a five-door hatchback, spiral saw its sales below 95,292 units in its first full year on the market (2008) to 44,850 units in 2010. Is the ranking in the segment has fallen to number 18, No. 12, according to data from JATO.
How bad has slipped on Bravo? It sold for a niche product, the Skoda Yeti (47,003) and just beat the Toyota Prius gasoline-electric hybrid (42 816).
When you start the Bravo, Fiat had said it was planning to sell “at least” 120,000 units a year. The company said the car would be a benefit, as long as they sold 75,000 units a year. The Bravo exceeded its goal of 75,000 units in 2007 and 2008, but has missed the mark in the last two years.
Speaking in Detroit in January, Marchionne said that one of the biggest problems to deal with Fiat was his strategy for the compact segment.
“There is no obvious answer to that question, and I think that replication of a me-too vehicle in the compact Fiat is totally inappropriate,” Marchionne said at the time.
He said he met with people of the Fiat brand and the design team to review options for Fiat compact segment.
“I do not think it will be a traditional offering,” he said at the time.
Fiat originally planned to replace Bravo hatchback compact minivan in 2013.
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